The Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station (CCAFS) Space Launch Complex 17 (SLC-17) on December 11, 1998.
The Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI)
propulsive maneuver will occur in September 1999 and will place the orbiter
into a highly elliptical, near polar orbit around Mars. Peripapse will be
lowered to approximately 110 km altitude to initiate the aerobraking maneuvers.
Successive passes of the orbiter through the upper atmosphere of Mars will
slow the vehicle and lower the apoapse of the orbit to 450 km over the course
of the 2 month aerobraking phase. The orbit then will be circularized using
the orbiter's onboard propulsion resulting in the design 400 km altitude,
near circular, polar science mapping orbit. Science operation of the PMIRR
and MARCI instruments will be conducted over the course of the one Martian
year (687 Earth day) mapping mission. The orbiter will continue operations
in a relay only mode following the science mission in support of any future
U.S. or international Mars surface missions